Category: Competition

Facebook officially launched its website some time ago in February 2004 and it launched its live feature fairly recently in April 2016, about a year after Periscope’s launch. Facebook’s incorporation of a live feature had a heavy impact on the declining use of Periscope due to it being the largest social media network in the world. Over a billion and a half people are active on Facebook monthly, while a billion are active daily. In comparison, Periscope is a much smaller application, but it had partnered with the larger platform, Twitter, early in its launch allowing for Twitter users to access a live feature through Periscope on Twitter. Twitter and Facebook are currently both dominating the social media world. Twitter’s platform traffic is much more comparable to Facebook’s than is Periscope’s platform alone. This live broadcast partnership and option was in the works between Periscope and Twitter near the end of 2015 and officially launched early 2016, just a few months before Facebook launched its live feature. Did Facebook steal the concept from Twitter and Periscope? Perhaps, but it is simply integrating a certainly popular feature to its already widely-used platform, so it was a smart move on behalf of Facebook, but a negative impact on Periscope further leading it to its recent decline. Initially when Periscope launched, it only allowed viewers to view past live streams for twenty-four hours after it was live streamed, but due to user demand, it changed this feature to allowing users to view missed or past live streams indefinitely at the convenience of their own time. Facebook took note of this and did the same; it allows for their live streams to be saved as videos on the page it was streamed from for indefinite viewing by page viewers or followers, as well as the additional ability to like, share, and comment on the video that has now become a post. Being the largest social media platform used in the world, numerous

source: google images

Celebrities and organizations commonly make use of the Facebook live feature as it makes it convenient for most people that already had a Facebook page. This affects the usage of Periscope since it itself is a newer platform strictly for live streams, therefore, more people may be skeptical to begin using it or may rely on other platforms they have already had that now include the live feature. Partnering with Twitter has helped Periscope to not completely be brushed under and die out, but Facebook live has knocked much of the competition out of the way from Periscope.

Periscope’s live streaming service connects people right in the moment. For a while, it was the only moderately well-known app that held this service, specifically for about one year since its launch, but with the recent integration of the live feature into many major apps such as Facebook and Instagram at the end of 2016, it has created heavy competition for Periscope and stolen many of its users. Instagram is already a very widely-used app with about 600 million active monthly users, and about 400 million daily active users.Once Instagram launched its live streaming feature which are called “stories”, it acquired about 150 million daily active story users. It is clear that Instagram has taken some notes from Periscope for its story launch, but it had the advantage of already having a large user base including celebrities, organization pages, and our friends and family members. This advantage quickly drew people into the featuring giving them the opportunity to connect live with essentially whomever they pleased (that has an Instagram account). Similar to Instagram, Periscope offers people the ability to connect with people from their personal lives as well as any celebrities and organizations that uses the application but it is only limited to the people that use the application which is significantly less than Instagram since after all, it is an application dedicated to what now seems as only one feature from Instagram – the live feature. These factors ultimately categorize Instagram Live as a competitor to Periscope and are contributing to Periscope’s recent decline. One feature that Periscope does still have an advantage in over Instagram live is that its live videos can be viewed after the stream has ended, therefore, the video will be saved onto the profile it was streamed through and any follower that has missed the live stream can catch up on it any time later on. On Instagram live however, the live streams can only be viewed while live, therefore, in order to partake in viewership of the stream, you must be present and available on the app as well as following the individual(s) that are broadcasting from their profile when the stream occurs; otherwise you have missed the “event” and are unable to view it later.